The reality was almost the opposite. While Bligh was a gruff, unfriendly, and arrogant man, he was not cruel. In fact, he would usually just yell at crew members for offenses that other captains would flog for, and would flog for offenses that other captains would hang crew for (such as desertion). People also forget that most of the sailors aboard the ship were conscripted - often given the choice between serving a jail sentence for petty crime vs. working on a ship. He had to maintain order with a crew of rabble somehow.
Also, Fletcher Christian wasn't an idealistic humanitarian hero. He was a spoiled and moody man who decided that he preferred lounging around a tropical island with native girls to work, and conspired to convince a rabble crew to do the same. In contrast, Bligh's actions on the life boat were nothing short of heroic: he managed to keep every man alive and navigate his way from Tahiti to the Australian coast with next to no tools.
‘The 1960’s Mutiny on the Bounty with Trevor Howard and Marlon Brando...’
I don’t know; I thought Howard captured the arrogant, unsympathetic Bligh pretty well, as opposed to Charles Laughton in 1935; Hopkins I thought played Bligh in a too hyperbolic light, freaking out over minutiae...
hands down, the worst portrayal of Christian was Brando; an absurd performance, really...
what happened on Pitcain Island once Fletcher and his crew got there was horrific too. I think most of the men became addicted to homemade alcohol and killed each other off eventually. There was drunkness, murder and jealousy.
Exactly.
Hollywood has crafted a “historical” narrative that’s been hard to dispel.